The invention relates to a cargo freight container comprising four walls, a top and a bottom, which form an interior having an inner ceiling and an inner bottom.
In this context, the container refers to a sea container or a similar large transport receptacle, which is of the type intended for transporting goods e.g. by container carrier ship, train, truck or barge. Reference through-out this specification to a container is to be taken as a reference to a cargo freight container of the type as described above.
When heavy goods, such as metal plates and bullions, stacked timber plates and the like, are transported in containers, the goods should not move in the container during transport or storage, because the goods may damage the container, or the goods in the container may get damaged. The goods to be transported in one container may weigh e.g. 30 tons, whereby the total weight of the container and the goods is e.g. 35 tons.
If the goods are secured in the container in a manner that allows the goods to move even slightly during shipping as the ship rolls, this movement may become larger with time and eventually lead to uncontrollable movement of the goods with the above-described consequences. Therefore, it is very important to secure the goods such that they do not move in the container during transport and storage.
Various arrangements for securing the goods in the containers are previously known. An arrangement is known, in which heavy goods are transported in a container with a hard exterior, and packing material, such as timber, is placed between the inner wall and the goods. The goods are secured to the container with chains, for instance. This known arrangement has a drawback that it takes large amounts of timber to load the goods. If the volume of goods is small as compared with the volume of the container, considerable amounts of packing material are required. Another drawback with this known arrangement is that goods that are large in size with respect to the size of the container are difficult to secure in the container. The reason for this is that it is difficult for the loaders to get around the goods on all sides while loading, because there is little space between the inner wall of the container and the goods, for instance less than 0.5 m. This may lead to poor securing of goods, or the circumstances force to perform the securing poorly, because it is simply impossible to secure the goods to the container.
An arrangement is also known, in which heavy goods are transported on a flat, to which the heavy goods are secured. However, a flat of this kind does not protect the goods, and consequently the goods cannot be transported by this arrangement outside the cargo space of the ship. Recently, the protection of goods has become increasingly important, because the degree of processing of the metal plate blanks to be transported has increased, for instance.
The object of the invention is to provide a cargo freight container, by which the above-described problems can be solved.
The objects of the invention are achieved by a cargo freight container, which is characterized by what is disclosed herein.
The preferred embodiments of the invention are also disclosed herein.
The container of the invention has an advantage that the load supports to be placed behind the goods can be pre-arranged/adjusted into place before the goods are loaded in the container. Hence, there is no need to go behind the goods for securing them to the container, the goods are simply put to place by pushing them against the load support by fork-lift truck.
The container of the invention has another advantage that it does not require any packing material, such as timber, for supporting the goods in the container. This saves material.
The container of the invention has yet another advantage that it enables firm securing of heavy goods in a container with a hard exterior.